Taking It Outside: How to Exhibit and Protect Outdoor Art

Embrace the beauty and challenges of nature

Buying art for an outdoor space is an opportunity to work with the elements of nature—as well as a challenge to guard against those elements.

How it looks with the sun shining on it, how it relates to the changing foliage, and how it might respond to wind and other elements are all factors to keep in mind.

Getting placement right

Work by Babette Bloch

Sculptor Babette Bloch, 61, of Connecticut, who creates her larger sculptures in marine-grade stainless steel, noted that for a collector, viewing her pieces is an ever-changing experience. “When the work is outside, it reflects the environment and the light. If you have a red tree near one of my stainless steel pieces, the piece will look pink or red, and when the sun rises it will look yellow.”

Ms. Bloch’s work has a lot of negative space that is changed by the environment behind it, so she cares a lot about how the pieces are installed. Ms. Bloch, whose limited edition sculptures average $30,000 to $40,000 (her monumental work can go up to a half-million dollars), suggested that one way a buyer can choose the placement wisely is by having the artist Photoshop the work into a snapshot of a given space. While she doesn’t Photoshop different scenarios herself, Ms. Bloch does consider where the sun rises on the property and where it will set, and the process is about general placement ideas.

Taking it one step further, Jeff Kahn, 63, of Pennsylvania, an artist who creates large-scale marine-grade aluminum pieces that go for $25,000 to $40,000, says safety is key when installing his work. He wants his pieces to blow softly in the breeze without actually flying off the ground.

“I’ve set up a sculpture and drove it 90 miles an hour in a pickup truck to test what it would do,” he said. “All I had to worry about was a speeding ticket, but now I can say it’s been wind tested.”

Work by Jeff Kahn

He’ll often work with clients to select a piece that suits their space. “I supply the temporary bases so people can set a piece up and live with it a while, then decide to permanently mount it,” he said.

In addition to safety and setting, it’s important that the surroundings complement the art and vice versa. One way to decorate your outdoor space is to pick pieces that look natural with soft edges, said collector John Scacchia, 70, of Bedford, New York. He owns pieces by Mr. Kahn and other artists in bronze, steel, aluminum, wood and other mediums.

When choosing a piece, a person should decide “whether you want to dominate the area or whether [the sculpture] should be an integral part of it,” he said.

Meanwhile, Michael Marocco, 58, of Connecticut, whose collection includes Ms. Bloch’s work as well as sculptures from South Africa, Korea, and Italy, suggested consulting with a landscape architect, an interior decorator, and a landscaper.

Work by Babette Bloch

“There’s a function of scale,” he said. “In certain areas the pieces need to be the right scale to have an impact.”

And remember that good works don’t have to be super pricey. Collector Craig Wakefield, 55, of Pennsylvania, said he has found outdoor works that start under $2,000 as well as those that go up to around 20 times that. Plus, you really never know where you will find the right piece. While he owns pieces from Mr. Kahn and other artists, he also has two limestone balls from a garden center, which cost him $650 and $150 in 2010 and now go for $995 and $165, he said. His tips for finding the right pieces: “Patience and an open mind.”

Maintaining a piece of art that lives outside

There are myriad ways to maintain outdoor art. Mr. Kahn said a buyer can clean his aluminum pieces with some turpentine, then put on a few coatings of basic paste wax, but sometimes the pieces don’t need any tending at all.

Work by Jeff Kahn

For the stainless steel works she creates, Ms. Bloch suggested washing with a mild soap and water three times a year followed by a non-scratching abrasive cleaner like Bar Keepers Friend.

Seldon Yuan, 41, a Brooklyn-based artist who created an outdoor piece with LED lights and wood, weatherproofed the LED neon with weatherproof paint, sealed up the crevices, and used a water-tight box. But, he said, “The general understanding will be if it is wood, it can never be fully protected from the elements.”

Peter Trout Gard, 42, of Pennsylvania, whose work includes large-scale metal sculptures as well as unconventional creations, such as a spherical piece made of salvaged locker doors, said his corten steel works require basically no maintenance. “They are meant to sit outside and stay rusty,” he said.

For glass, sculptor Glenn Zweygardt, 73, of New York, advised using caution when it comes to cleaning—especially on a warm day.

“If a groundskeeper sees a bird pooped on the glass and they spray ground water, that water can be as cold as 50 or 60 degrees, and if you spray it on the glass, you put in a surface scratch,” he said. (Mr. Zweygardt suggested waiting until the glass has cooled down before cleaning it.)

Mr. Zweygardt said his stone pieces, on the other hand, only require a pressure wash every five years, or soap and water. But, he said, it might just develop character as the elements get to it. “You might just say, ‘Damn it looks good,’” he said.

DISCLAIMER: The currency conversion is provided for illustration purposes only. It is meant only as an approximation based on the latest information available and should not be relied upon for any other purposes. We are not responsible for any loss that you may incur as a result of relying on these currency conversions. All property prices are as stated by the listing agent.